The rules that decide the price
Basic strategy gets you to roughly 0.5% at a good table. The table itself can add a percentage point or more before you have played a hand.
| Rule | Good version | Bad version | Cost of the bad one |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackjack pays | 3:2 | 6:5 | +1.39% |
| Dealer on soft 17 | Stands | Hits | +0.22% |
| Double after split | Allowed | Not allowed | +0.14% |
| Doubling | Any two cards | 9-11 only | +0.09% |
| Surrender | Late surrender offered | Not offered | +0.08% |
| Decks | Single or double | Six or eight | +0.5% or so |
The first row is the one to memorise. A table paying 6:5 on a natural is taking nearly three times the edge of a 3:2 table, and the sign will be right there on the felt. If a live lobby shows you a 6:5 table and a 3:2 table at the same minimum, there is simply no argument for sitting at the first.
Basic strategy in three sentences
Basic strategy is the mathematically correct play for every combination of your hand and the dealer’s upcard, computed once and identical for everyone. It is not a system, it does not adapt, and it does not claim to win — it claims to lose the least. The full grid, including the handful of rows that account for most of the money beginners give away, is on the blackjack cheat sheet.
If you learn nothing else: always split aces and eights, never split tens or fives, stand on hard 17 or more, and hit hard 12-16 when the dealer shows 7 or higher. Those four lines cover the large majority of hands you will actually be dealt.
Every serious player I know keeps a strategy card open. It is not a crutch and nobody at a live table will think less of you — the dealer has seen a thousand of them.
Nell Ashworth
Insurance and the other side bets
Insurance is offered when the dealer shows an ace and it is a bet that the dealer has blackjack, paying 2:1. The true odds are worse than that in every deck configuration, which makes it a house edge of around 7% dressed up as a safety net. Decline it, every time, including when you hold a blackjack yourself and the dealer offers “even money” — same bet, different wording.
Perfect Pairs and 21+3 sit in the same category: clearly priced, clearly disclosed, and running edges of 4% to 10% next to a main game at 0.5%. Playing the side bets turns the best game in the casino into a middling one.
Online, live and speed
RNG blackjack shuffles after every hand, so counting is impossible by design and the game is purely basic strategy. Live blackjack uses a real shoe, cut early, and runs at maybe forty hands an hour against several hundred on software — which matters, because expected loss is edge multiplied by hands. Infinite Blackjack and its relatives let unlimited players play the same dealer hand, which is convenient and usually comes with slightly worse rules; read the table before you assume.
Blackjack and bonuses
Almost every UK welcome offer either excludes blackjack from wagering or counts it at 10%. There is nothing sinister in that — a 0.5% game would otherwise be a cheap way to clear a bonus. It does mean that if you intend to play blackjack, taking the bonus is usually the wrong move, and the arithmetic for that decision is on the no deposit bonus page.
Every site in our tables goes through the same four steps in the same order. We judge what actually happens, not what the front page says.How we test a casino
Does basic strategy guarantee I win?
No. It minimises the house edge to roughly half a per cent. Over time that is still a loss; over an evening it is mostly variance.
Should I ever take insurance?
No, not as a basic strategy player. It is a separate bet with a much worse edge than the hand you are playing.
Is card counting possible at an online live table?
In principle for a moment after a shuffle, in practice no — shoes are cut deep and reshuffled early precisely to prevent it.
Why does the dealer win ties on some tables?
That is not blackjack, it is a variant such as Blackjack Switch or a “no push” house game, and the rule is worth several per cent. Check the table rules before sitting down.
